ChangeThis: Issue 59

We've published the 59th issue of ChangeThis for your reading pleasure. Excerpts and links below. Enjoy!

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Too Big to Live: Why Letting Banks Fail Is Actually Good For Real People by Douglas Rushkoff

"As the financial institutions we have come to rely on appear to topple under their own weight, it's only natural that we rush to support them. These are the banks, investment groups, and insurance firms to which we have outsourced our savings, financing, and investing. They fund our businesses and lend most of our currency into existence.

Were we just a bit more aware of how this dependency developed, however, as well as what it costs us in the long run, we might choose instead to exploit their temporary vulnerability toward very different ends. Indeed, if we had our wits about us, we would seek to put our biggest banks out of our misery, for good."

Click here to visit the site. Click here to download the PDF. Being Strategic: The Antidote to Fear by Erika Andersen

"[T]he antidote to fear? [...] Pull people out of their panic and self-protective impulses by first acknowledging the difficulties, then raising their eyes and hearts to a possibility of success. At that point you can take advantage of their newly available and hopeful energy to make that possibility a reality.

This is the essence of what I call being strategic: doing a clear and accurate assessment of the current situation, then articulating the possibility of a successful future. And at that point, when you see clearly where you are and where you hope to go, staying strategic means making core directional choices ... about how to achieve that future you've envisioned."

Click here to visit the site. Click here to download the PDF.

A Mind for Selling: Brain Science Is Turning Management On Its Head by Charles Jacobs

"We don't have direct knowledge of the physical world; we only have knowledge of our ideas of it. This may seem like just an interesting curiosity until we realize that the world we know is not an objective record of the one that exists outside of us, but the version of it we create according to whatever else is going on in our minds at the time. We don't live in the world of atoms; we live in the world of ideas."

Click here to visit the site. Click here to download the PDF. Trusting Google and Yahoo: Search Engines & Information Literacy by Jay Moonah

"We pride ourselves on thinking critically. But how do our critical thinking skills apply to what we find in our searches? Because the results seem to appear like magic, many of us tend to think of search results as being "unbiased." But in actual fact, there are many individuals and companies working hard every day to try to push their information to the top of the page in your Google search."

Click here to visit the site. Click here to download the PDF.

Corporate America's Big Problem: And How to Fix It for Good by Christine Arena

"Big business has a serious problem to solve: most people don't trust it. They haven't for over a decade, as evidenced by compelling research from firms including Roper, Forrester, Edelman and The Reputation Institute—not to mention the rise of a multi-billion dollar watchdog industry comprised of websites, books, magazines and feature films dedicated to depicting the modern corporation as today's most powerful and evil force."

Click here to visit the site. Click here to download the PDF.

Change Your Thinking > To Change Your Results! by Tony Jeary

"Business as usual is unrealistic in our current economic climate. Leaders must accept the fact that success is likely to become a moving target and their organizations must become faster, leaner and better equipped to compete and change quickly. To embrace speed as a strategic asset requires higher levels of clarity about the real needs and goals of the organization. Clarity means that the value and purpose of every effort must be evaluated and put to the test." Click here to visit the site. Click here to download the PDF.